Mortise lock having wards



INVENTOR. ERICH HENSEL ATTORNEY Mo 3 l 1 may a a l l. A A

E. HENSEL MORTISE LOCK HAVING WARDS Filed July 21, 1954 Oct. 25, 1955United States Patent O MORTISE LOCK HAVING WARDS Erich Hensel,Doberlug-Kirchhain, Germany Application July 21, 1954, Serial No.444,879

3 Claims. (Cl. 70-346) This invention relates to locks, and moreparticularly to mortise locks, preferably for use in articles offurniture.

The ribs or guides of hitherto known mortise locks for guiding the wardof a key during a rotation thereof in the lock are attached to thecasing of the lock, so that they cannot be readily exchanged. If it isdesired to change the guides of a lock so as to make it operable by akey having a differently shaped ward, it is necessary to disassemble thelock. This is of disadvantage to a cabinet-maker who at the time ofattaching hitherto known mortise locks to an article of furniture doesnot know whether the user of the articles of furniture prefer the use ofone and the same key or the use of a plurality of keys with differentwards for the various locks on one and the same or different articlesand, therefore, cannot select mortise locks equipped with guidessuitable to the requirements of a user. On the other hand, the user ofarticles of furniture provided with hitherto known mortise locks mayencounter the inconvenience of, for example, carrying around thirtydiiferent keys for eight different articles of furniture or of beingcompelled to leave the keys in the locks of the articles if he does notwish to carry around the keys. Furthermore, if a key is lost, the lockbecomes mostly useless, as it is rarely possible to obtain another keywhich fits. If, then, the original lock shall be replaced by a new lock,in most cases the socket of the new lock does not conform with thesocket of the original lock, so that the door may be damaged by makingthe mortise fit for receiving the socket of the new lock.

An object of the invention is to provide a mortise lock of such aconstruction that any person, even a nonskilled person, may readilyreplace the guides for the key by new guides at any time withoutdisassembling the lock mechanism per se.

Another object of the invention is to provide a mortise lock, which maybe readily equipped with dilferent guides without change of thecross-section of its casing.

A further object of the invention is to improve on the construction ofmortise locks as now ordinarily made.

Other objects and structural details of the invention will be apparentfrom the following description when read in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings forming part of this specification, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of a mortise lock according to theinvention,

Fig. 2 is a front elevational view of the mortise lock shown in Fig. 1,

Fig. 3 is an elevational view of the inner end of the front guidingsleeve for the key,

Fig. 4 is a sectional view of the mortise lock, taken on line A--B ofFig. 2, wherein, however, the bolt is in advanced locking position andthe guiding sleeves for the key are omitted,

Fig. 5 is an elevational view of the key,

Fig. 6 is a sectional view of the mortise lock taken on the line OD ofFig. 1, and

Fig. 7 is an elevational view of the inner end of the rear guidingsleeve for the key.

Referring now to the drawings, the mortise lock according to theinvention comprises a casing 1 having an aperture 7 slidably engagedwith a reciprocable locking 2,721,470 Patented Oct. 25, 1955 bolt 2. Afront guiding sleeve 3' for the key and a rear guiding sleeve 3" for thekey are inserted into a bore 4 of the casing 1. The concentric ribs orguides 8' and 8" of the guiding sleeves 3 and 3 being arranged on theinner sides thereof for cooperation with the steps of the ward orbitting 9 of the key 10 face each other, as best shown in Fig. 6. Theguiding sleeves 3 and 3" are prevented from rotation by means of a nose6' and 6" respectively which is engaged with a longitudinal groove 5 and5" respectively in the wall of the bore 4. The guiding sleeve 3 has asuitably shaped passage 11 for the ward 9 of the key and the guidingsleeve 3" has a stud 12 for engagement with a bore 13 of the shank ofthe key 10.

Before the lock according to the invention is mounted on a door or thelike, the guiding sleeves 3' and 3" are inserted into the bore 4 of thecasing 1. Then the lock is pressed into a slot, which has been made inthe door by means of a slot boring machine in accordance with thecross-section of the lock. As the total width of the pair of guidingsleeves 3' and 3" corresponds to the width of the casing 1 of the lock,the guiding sleeves 3 and 3" being flush with the outer surface of thecasing 1 are prevented from axial displacement by means of the walls ofthe slot of the door receiving the lock.

The guiding sleeves 3' and 3 may be inserted into the casing 1 of thelock in the manner as shown in Fig. 6 or in a reversed arrangementwherein the guiding sleeve 3 is on the right hand side and the guidingsleeve 3 is on the left hand side. Depending on the arrangement of theguiding sleeves 3' and 3" in the casing 1, the lock may be used eitherfor right hand doors or for left hand doors.

If it is desired to replace the guides of the lock by guides ofdifferent shape so as to make same fit for a key with a different Ward,the guiding sleeves 3' and 3" can be readily taken out for replacementby guiding sleeves with guides of a difierent shape. Thus, the locks ofvarious articles of furniture in an apartment can be readily changed insuch a manner that a single key may be used for all of them.

I have described preferred embodiments of my invention, but it isunderstood that this disclosure is for the purpose of illustration andthat various omissions or changes in shape, proportion and arrangementsof parts, as well as the substitution of equivalent elements for thoseherein shown and described may be made without departing from the spiritand scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. A mortise lock having wards comprising: a casing, said casing havinga bore, a pair of guiding sleeves for a key inserted into said bore, andconcentric guides for cooperation with the ward of the key arranged onthe inner sides of said guiding sleeves.

2. In a mortise lock having wards as claimed in claim 1, meansassociated with said guiding sleeves and said casing for preventing arotation of said guiding sleeves relative to said casing.

3. In a mortise lock having wards as claimed in claim 1, said guidingsleeves being in engagement with each other, and the outer surfaces ofsaid guiding sleeves being substantially flush with said casing.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS118,986 Towne Sept. 12, 1871 408,688 Burgess Aug. 13, 1889 506,792Nixholm Oct. 17, 1893 1,074,418 Doughty Sept. 30, 1913 1,253,678 FrainJan. 15, 1918 1,261,181 Tamburini Apr. 2, 1918

